Twins pitchers struggle against top of Rays lineup in 7-4 loss

The Twins compiled a nice video tribute to Sonny Gray's 1,500th career strikeout, with clips of his first whiff a decade ago and other notable K's in the intervening years, that played on the scoreboard as he walked to the dugout after freezing Taylor Wells with a fastball to close the first inning with that milestone.

"I wasn't even aware of it, to be honest," Gray said, not surprisingly. "I was more frustrated with myself, but also trying to figure out a way to get back out there and get some quick outs, so maybe I have a chance to pitch deeper in the game."

It didn't happen. The righthander, whose 2.96 ERA is second best in the American League, was done after four innings, the bullpen made things worse, and the Twins suffered their second consecutive loss, 7-4 to Tampa Bay on Monday night at Target Field.

"I didn't throw strikes, first and foremost. I was constantly behind in the count over and over and over," said Gray, who allowed three singles in the first, hit a batter and gave up only his third first-inning earned run of the season. "In the short time I was out there, I made some pitches to get out of situations, but I just didn't get ahead of guys at all. [And] I really didn't have anything to put them away with."

It wasn't all his fault, of course. The Rays have scored the second-most runs in the AL and allowed the fewest. Led by Yandy Diaz and his four-hit day, they peppered the oft-frustrated Gray and his successors all night, putting a runner on base in eight of their nine turns at bat and scoring seven times, tied for the most runs the Twins have allowed in almost four weeks. And it dropped the Twins to a mystifying 13-16 on days that Gray starts.

"It's obviously a tough group on the other side of the field," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said before the Twins lost to the Rays for the fourth time in four meetings this year. "They have offensive players that do a lot of damage. They always have pitchers with very good stuff. There's never really any soft spots that you can look at and say, 'This is something we can aim at. This is something we can take advantage of.' "

They had little luck taking advantage of Tyler Glasnow, at least not while Gray was in the game.

"Sometimes you show up to the ballpark and you're not at the top of your game. Today was not one of our overall best-quality games," Baldelli said with a shrug. "We still had some chances, but we were probably a ways away from winning that game."

Well, there were some high points for the Twins. Max Kepler turned on a first-pitch slider from Glasnow in the fourth inning and bashed it onto the plaza in right field, a solo home run that gave the outfielder the Twins' lead in home runs with 22, one more than the injured Joey Gallo.

Two innings later, Edouard Julien and Alex Kirilloff led off the sixth with back-to-back singles, giving Royce Lewis an RBI chance — and he hasn't missed many lately. The rookie infielder waited for a fastball, and on a 2-1 count, he got it. Lewis lasered the pitch a dozen rows up in the left-field bleachers, his 12th home run — that's sixth on the team already — in only 50 games.

But the game was decided by the bullpens, and the Rays had the better group Monday. Kevin Kelly, Jake Diekman and Pete Fairbanks each pitched a scoreless inning in relief of Glasnow, with Fairbanks earning his 23rd save in 25 opportunities.

Baldelli, though, chose to rest his most-used relievers, and turned the game over to Dylan Floro, Brent Headrick and Josh Winder. That group gave up seven hits, five runs and two homers over five innings.

It added up to the Twins' most lopsided loss, albeit only by three runs, so far in September.

"We made some mistakes, and we couldn't capitalize on a couple of opportunities," Baldelli said. "It's a good day to forget."